Exhibit: Jesuits, sisters who helped build church in US

By Michelle Martin

Staff writer

A library catalog from the 1870's is on display in the new LUMA exhibition, "Crossings and Dwellings" which opens on July 19 and runs through Oct. 19. Using historical maps, books, objects, and textiles, "Crossings and Dwellings" tells the story of European Jesuits and women religious who arrived in America's borderlands to serve indigenous and immigrant populations. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

This rare first edition of "Spiritual Exercises" -published in Latin in 1548 as "Exercitia Spiritvalia" - is a foundational document of the Society of Jesus on display in the new LUMA exhibition. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

This gold Dalmatic is part of a set of the 19th-Century vestments from Holy Family Parish, established in 1857 on Chicago's Near West Side by Dutch Father Arnold J. Damen, S.J. Worn by deacons during special occasions such as Christmas and Easter, this dalmatic helped inject a sense of grandeur into the lives of the Irish immigrants who attended Mass at Holy Family. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

Monstrances on display in the new LUMA exhibition. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

A ciborium and candle holder on display. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

A 1930 photo of Sister Mary Justitia Coffey, BVM, the first president of Mundelein College, and her desk along with an art deco lamp from the reading tables in the library of Mundelein College are on display in the new LUMA exhibition, "Crossings and Dwellings" which opens on July 19 and runs through Oct. 19. (Natalie Battaglia, Catholic New World)

Visitors to the Loyola Museum
of Art can take a
journey crossing the Atlantic
and spanning the continent
— as well as nearly four centuries
— with “Crossings and
Dwellings: Restored Jesuits,
Women Religious, American Experience,
1814–2014.” Artifacts
include a flint cross given to Jesuit
Pere Jacques Marquette, who
wintered on the shores of Lake
Michigan on what is now the
South Side of Chicago, to an
Oscar won by Mercedes McCambridge,
a graduate of Mundelein
College, for her role in 1949’s
“All the King’s Men.”

The exhibit, mounted in honor
of the 200th anniversary of the
second Jesuit restoration, starts by
telling the story of the Jesuit presence
in the American Midwest
and their travels across North
America. It also looks at the contributions
of religious women to
the development of Chicago and
other parts of the United States,
particularly the Religious of the
Sacred Heart and the Sisters of
Charity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.

‘Short-term planning’

Pamela Ambrose, director of
cultural affairs for Loyola University
Chicago and director of
LUMA, said the museum was approached
two years ago by Jesuit
Father Mark Bosco about mounting
the exhibit to coincide with a
conference commemorating the
Jesuit restoration. But Bosco
promised the museum wouldn’t be
on its own: Jesuit Father Stephen
Schloesser, a professor of French
history, was asked to curate it.

Planning a visit

Loyola University
Museum of Art, 820 N.
Michigan Ave. (right by the
Water Tower)

“To do it in two years, that’s
short-term planning,” Ambrose
said.“We have beautiful things in
the exhibition. These monstrances
are incredible.”

David Miros of the Jesuit
Archives of the Central United
States in St. Louis said the
archives provided many items, including
those that highlight the
ministry of Jesuit Father Pierre De
Smet, a well-known missionary
who traveled through the Rocky
Mountains to the Pacific Northwest,
and came through the St.
Louis area. The De Smet items,
include everything from liturgical
vestments to globes that the missionary
brought over from Belgium.

Coincidentally, when he was
first contacted about this exhibit,
Miros said he had just returned
from a lending trip to Belgium,
where he visited a university that
has the bills of lading for the very
globes that are in the Loyola exhibit.

This exhibit really highlights the
connections that existed between
Europe and the United States,
Miros said, displaying many of the
items that the Jesuits brought from
Europe. On the other hand, there
are many Native American artifacts
held in private collections in
Europe — often given as tokens of
appreciation for support of the
missionaries in America.

Miros said that he likes the idea
of people getting to understand
history through artifacts.

“Sometimes there’s no better
way to explain history than
through items of material culture,”
Miros said.

Jesuit restoration

The 1814 restoration of the Jesuits
followed a papal suppression
of the order in 1773. After the
order received permission to resume
its activities in western European
countries and their
colonies, it returned to what is
now the central United States in
short order.

“They did what the Society of
Jesus do here in Chicago,” Ambrose
said. “They started schools
and hospitals. St. Ignatius started
as a seminary.”

At the same time, religious
women were arriving in the area,
starting their own schools and hospitals
and colleges.

The first challenge to putting the
exhibit together was finding artifacts
to include, Ambrose said.
Then the museum has to get permission
to use them, and go
through the practical steps to pack
them up and bring them to the museum
and set the exhibit up. The
actual set up took about a month,
Ambrose said.

Schloesser, who had the help of
several graduate students in
pulling the exhibit together, said
they were fortunate to have the
help of so many willing lenders.

Other artifacts came from Father
Jeremiah Boland at Holy Family
Parish on Roosevelt Road. Holy
Family Church, built in 1857 by
Jesuit Father Arnold Damen, had
many items in a safe that ended up
in the exhibit. Another trove was
in the Loyola University library’s
Archives and Special Collections,
and many items in the sections on
women religious came from the
Women’s Leadership Archives at
the Gannon Center of Loyola University.

Schloesser said he hopes the exhibit
helps people realize that the
Jesuits and the other religious who
came to the United States were
immigrants, some serving immigrant
populations and others going
out to evangelize among the Native
Americans.

“In a way, it make totals sense
for a European historian to do
this,” Schloesser said. “It gets at
the idea that this is the American
story, a story of immigration.”

“Imagine yourself in these people’s
shoes, down at the shipping
docks, about to cross the Atlantic
to North America,” Schloesser
said. “These experiences traumatized
people. Social psychologists
say it takes three generations for
an immigrant family to adjust.
These people had six weeks.”